Classmate no Joshi, Zenin Sukideshita おわり

 As the dust settles at the conclusion of a most rambunctious summer season, it’s beginning to look like the clear winner of this quarter’s shows is gonna be “Classmate no Joshi, Zenin Sukideshita” which started off strong, entertained throughout, and ended up being one of the most charming and touching shows of the year!

The story of a newbie writer who inadvertently uses an anonymous story written by one of his childhood classmates as the basis for his book and is desperate to find out who the author is when the story becomes a surprise best-seller, Subaru Kimura is great as the bumbling but kind-hearted Edamatsu, and Yua Shinkawa shines as his long-suffering Managing Editor Katayama!

These two make such a great pair- with Edamatsu spazzy and energetic and Katayama sensible and clear-headed...Together they have to figure out which one of the female students might have written the story, and so each episode features Edamatsu’s memories of his childhood crushes in class, EACH one with her own unique charms!

 One by one, we learn about each individual girl and, by the end of the drama, we know Edamatsu’s classmates as well as he! And having the class hold a mini-reunion at the final episode bookended the series just as perfectly as you could get- As you see all the people he has written about now fully grown up, he realizes at once what a cherished childhood he had with these people in his life!

Of all the heavy hitters of the season, funny that this very light-hearted show became one of my BIG faves!!! A real "Feel Good" drama to put a smile on your face!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogpsot.com

Classmate no Joshi, Zenin Sukideshita: “ I Liked All the Girls in My Class”

Absolutely charming drama about an inept but lovable guy named Sueno Edamatsu (Subaru Kimura) ,working as a bug exterminator, whose world gets turning upside down when he suddenly finds himself the author of a best-selling novel….with only one problem- he didn’t write it!

Seems some 6 months ago, Edamatsu was struggling at his computer trying to come up with some kind of story for the upcoming writing contest, the Newcomer Literary Award. He's been at it for hours, but just CANNOT come up with anything good!

At that moment, he receives a package in the mail- it seems his school has opened up a time capsule buried there back when he was a student there, and has gone about returning the articles to the students who placed them in the capsule.

Edamatsu finds several things he put in the capsule, but doesn’t recognize a notebook containing an entire story called “Spring and Ultramarine”. He then remembers he had put a “Rant Book” into the capsule which looked a lot like this notebook, and figures they must have mixed them up when divvying up the contents of the time capsule to return to the students.

There is no name on the notebook, but the handwriting indicates a girl wrote it.
Out of curiosity he reads it and, finding it pretty good, decides on a whim to use it as the basis for his OWN novel. In the end he barely changes ANYTHING about it, but since he hardly expects to place, sends it off anyway. But then he finds he won the GRAND PRIZE and that they are PUBLISHING his book! EGADS!

The first thing the Publishers do is set him up with his own agent, the able but unlucky Miharu Katamaya (Yua Shinkawa), someone with the bad track record of losing her clients! She's hoping to start having some good luck by taking on Edamatsu, but she'll have her work cut out for her!

A guilty Edamatsu tries to confess many times about his plagiarism, however in the end he just cannot do it, and the company informs him that they want Edamatsu to begin writing a SERIAL every month for their periodical!

Edamatsu feels he doesn’t have it IN him to write any stories on his own, and sure enough, night after night we see him staring forlornly at a blank screen on his computer!

He finally gives in, loudly apologizing on his knees as he confesses to Katayama that he didn't write the story at all, that it was lifted from a notebook he came across, and that he doesn't have any skills to write anything, much less a serial!

At first taken aback, Katayama has a cooler head about the situation and knows that not only will Edamatsu get into trouble if this gets out- so will SHE! And with so much riding on the success of Edamatsu, she tells him that for the time being, he should keep his theft a secret between them, and PROCEED with the serial.

"I stole it all from this notebook!"

"Why Me?" thinks Katayama

"Here's what we'll do....."

There is the problem, of course, besides Edamatsu's inability to write- the mystery of who really wrote the novel, and they only have two clues: ONE, that it was written by a girl, and TWO, this girl must have been in Edamatsu’s class since she put it in the capsule, so together they must figure out who it is. It seems like a daunting task, however, Edamatsu has an uncanny knack for remembering details of everyone, and furthermore- he had, at one time or another, a crush on EVERY SINGLE GIRL in his class!

Katayama asks him to try and remember the girls he went to class with, and he tells her a wonderful story about a girl he liked named Taniguchi, who promised him a kiss if he got enough trading stamps for the class.

"Young" Edamatsu played by Touri Oikawa

It is a fun and humorous story, and though in the end, he did not get the kiss, Katayama is impressed at his attention to detail and how the story is crafted with a feeling of warmth and heart. Suddenly inspired, Katayama knows what the subject of the new serial will be: STORIES ABOUT ALL THE GIRLS THAT EDAMATSU LOVED, one girl at a time! 

Not only will this method produce insightful stories with love and care which people will want to read, but going through each girl one by one, they will hopefully discover the TRUE author of Spring and Ultramarine and be able to locate them! Will they ever find the real writer? And…even if they DO…what will this woman say when she realizes Edamatsu has stolen her story and claimed it as his own? Only time will tell!

In the meantime, we will be hearing the tales of Edamatsu and all his fond memories of his school loves and losses!

This is SUCH a SWEET drama of high school crushes and heartbreaks, and having each episode feature the story of just one girl reminding me of the drama “Ano ko no Yume wo Mitan Desu” which also featured charming individual stories!

SO far we've had tales of girls promising kisses for trading stamps, a tuff tomboyish girl who shares a love of wrestling, a beautiful girl who is known for throwing up in class and who finds a friend in him…

ALL of them such sweet stories and I can’t wait to see more!

Posed by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com